Ɛpsilon

To J. D. Hooker   11 August [1855]

Down.

Aug 11

My dear Hooker

I forgot to say that I left Book from Henslow for you at Athenæum:—you might not ask for it.—it is a Hand-Book.—1

Secondly I forgot to ask whether when Asa Gray wrote last to me through you, whether he sent the marked sheet of his Manual.2 Some expressions in letter made me fancy it was then sent.— If it comes when you are absent, what shall be done? Will Sir William be so very kind as to send it by some safe channel to 57 Queen Anne St. Cavendish Sqr.—or to Athenæum, though I think former safer.—

Goodbye. | C. Darwin

I am in tremendous spirits for I have just made out a new & wonderful (almost generic) specific (!) character between two Breeds of my Pigeons.3

1
Not identified.
2
Asa Gray had said he would send marked, unbound pages of A. Gray 1848 (see letter from Asa Gray, 30 June 1855). See, however, CD’s next letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 [August 1855].
3
In Variation 1: 157, CD stated: Many of the genera of the Columbidæ, which are admitted by ornithologists, do not differ in any great degree from each other; taking this into consideration, there can be no doubt that several of the most strongly characterised domestic forms, if found wild, would have been placed in at least five new genera. At this time CD apparently had two breeds of pigeons: fantails and pouters (letter to W. D. Fox, 23 May [1855]). In Variation 1: 147, CD described how the oil-gland was absent in fantails.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

4.00 new &] interl
4.00 (almost generic)] interl
4.00 (!)] added

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-1738,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-1738